Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Solar
Trust of America LLC, which holds the development rights for the
world's largest solar power project, on Monday filed for bankruptcy
protection after its majority owner began insolvency proceedings in Germany.

The Oakland-based company has held rights for
the 1,000-megawatt Blythe Solar Power Project in the Southern California
desert, which last April won $2.1 billion of conditional loan
guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy. It is unclear how the
bankruptcy will affect that project.

Solar Trust said it ran short of liquidity after Solar Millennium AG (S2MG.DE), which holds a 70 percent stake, sought court protection in December.

Solar Millennium then tried to sell that stake to solarhybrid AG (SHLG.DE), but that transaction collapsed when solarhybrid also sought court protection in Germany.

Edward
Kleinschmidt, Solar Trust of America's chief operating officer, in a
court filing said the company has already missed two quarterly rent
payments on the Blythe project, and cannot make several other payments
due imminently....MORE

...Indeed, despite the posturing and finger pointing, the American solar
energy industry is alive and well. I should know. My company, Solar
Trust of America, is planning to build over 2,000 MW of new solar plants
in the coming years. Add to that an additional 5,500 MW of planned
utility-scale projects by other companies throughout the American
Southwest. And this says nothing of the thousands of megawatts of new
solar projects that will be built on hundreds of thousands of rooftops
across the country....

...What that adds up to is jobs. Good jobs....

Or not.

There was a reason for the choice of the first winner of the Climateer "Our Hero" award back in April 2007:

The 26th Secretary of War, the Democrat and Republican (!) Senator from Pennsylvania, Simon Cameron:

Our Hero

"The honest politician is one who when he is bought, will stay bought."